We clearly felt, in recent months, that the electric flying taxi project in Paris was in trouble. It’s even more true this Friday. The Ile-de-France Region has just announced the cancellation of a subsidy of one million euros granted to experiment with this project in the streets of the capital, we learned on Friday from the regional executive. A new setback for this controversial idea of a shuttle between Paris and the Issy-les-Moulineaux heliport.
The president (LR) of the Region, Valérie Pécresse, submitted to elected officials a project to withdraw the subsidy granted to Groupe ADP, manager of Paris airports, to install a platform moored at the Quai d’Austerlitz, in the east of the capital, according to the text of this deliberation transmitted to AFP. As a reminder, the principle of this payment was adopted on November 17, 2023, but “following delays at different levels (…), the experiment could not take place under the conditions envisaged”, explained Valérie Pécresse.
No Olympics, no…
From the same source, ADP and its industrial partner, the German aircraft manufacturer Volocopter, initially hoped to carry out “1,000 general public flights over six months on a link between Paris and the Issy-les-Moulineaux heliport”. According to Valérie Pécresse’s office, the decision to cancel this subsidy will be ratified on November 15. A cancellation which, however, does not call into question Île-de-France’s support for innovation in general and for vertical take-off and landing machines (VTOLs, their acronym in English) in particular, assured the executive.
It must be said that the promoters’ announcement three months ago not to fly these aircraft during the Paris Olympic Games did not help… The certification of the Volocity, the machine designed and manufactured by Volocopter, underwent a “lag of a few weeks” linked to its engines, ADP then indicated, saying it hoped for flights when Notre-Dame Cathedral reopens in December.
The Ministry of Transport, which authorized experiments from Austerlitz until December 31, did not wish to comment on Friday. “We are ready to be able to carry out an experiment in December, from the Austerlitz barge with our partner Volocopter,” ADP declared on Friday. Remember that the ADP airport group controlled by the French state recorded a net profit of 347 million euros in the first half of 2024.